


Chywrlio (I can see you staying here)

by themadjaguar57



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Byleth has a bad time, Dorothea would absolutely know things were up i refuse to believe she wouldnt, F/F, F/M, Gen, Spoilers for Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Time Loop, Time Shenanigans, basically only if you didnt know about it, idk they dont kiss at all dont get excited, implied dorogard, implied dorogardleth, implied doroleth, minor spoilies anyway, no one kisses til the timeskip yknow its just a thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2019-09-12
Packaged: 2020-10-17 05:27:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20615720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themadjaguar57/pseuds/themadjaguar57
Summary: Dorothea is the first to notice time isn't quite right. Byleth takes her to tea.





	Chywrlio (I can see you staying here)

Dorothea is the first to notice the day repeating. Her days are regimented and scheduled nigh religiously, though it goes mostly unnoticed to her classmates. When she sees the same bachelor at her door in the morning for early tea and feels a certain sense of preemptive exhaustion despite knowing not much more than his name, she pauses, makes a note of it then moves on. By the afternoon she knew her next date would not arrive, and did not go herself. Instead she found Byleth running through the halls.

“Professor?”

They slid to a halt, nearly tripping over their own feet. Their hair dripping sweat, and their robes seemingly abandoned with propriety some time ago, their hands hit their knees with a wheeze. Dorothea can see even from a short distance that their eyes are unfocused, running across the floor and walls like there is something to be seen beyond ancient stone.

They shakily raise a hand and offer it to Dorothea, and when they raise their head their face is so clearly distressed Dorothea nearly matches it.

“Tea?”

They have asked her to tea more than once in the past few months, certainly showing her a bit more favor than most of the other students, regardless of her status as a commoner, or that she’s been Byleth’s student officially for some time.

“...of course, Professor.”

They settle in the garden, and when Byleth opens their personal teabox, they grimace as two tea sets remain. One last sweet-apple, and one Von Hrelsveg. They shakily select the sweet-apple, uncharacteristically nervous about seemingly every aspect of the process.

“Professor are you quite all right?” Dorothea finally asks as the first cup of tea is poured.

Byleth sighs, leaning forward to rest their head on their shaking hands, shaking it “no” as they curl downwards.

Dorothea’s face finally cracks against her will, her eyebrows pushing worry lines upward as she pulls her chair around the table to place her hand gently on Byleth’s back.

“Is there… Anything I can do?”

Byleth shakes their head “no” again.

“Profesor… Something is different about today, isn’t it?”

Byleth pauses, and takes a quavering breath in.

“I’m out of time, Dorothea.”

Dorothea nearly pulls her hand away, but leans in, offering her other hand to them. “Professor, whatever it is, I can at least listen, if that would help?”

Byleth quakes, and tears begin hitting the pavement, and then the world stops as they slide their fingers into Dorothea’s.

The tears hang in the air, pearlescent and sparkling in the light. Dorothea looks up and the steam has stopped rising from the tea, the other students have frozen like statues, and even the sun itself seems slightly delayed in its shadow-casting as the imitation of Dorothea’s form hangs in a permanent hold with Byleth’s.

“Both sides of time have been revealed to me, and I have seen nothing.”

A flurry of visions assault Dorothea’s senses as fire blooms around them, then a heat and cold repeated five years’ worth, rubble rising and falling in the distance, students leaving then disappearing then coming back. She can see her classmates, and her friends, and the ones she never got to know all pass through the halls, older, tired, broken by something. She sees funerals and birthdays and other small things pass through the garden, and finally, Byleth in a crown.

Each time the crown is handed to Byleth by someone else entirely, by the archbishop or by one of the house leaders.

“I can’t save all of them.”

“Professor I…”

“I can’t even save you.”

Dorothea turns slightly, and sees another phantom of herself, older, tired, broken like the rest. Maybe worse, there’s something to her that just. Truly isn’t happy. Even as friends celebrate victories, the phantom barely smiles, ghosting her own face with a pallid imitation of joy.

Byleth releases Dorothea’s hand, and they return to the present, where Dorothea realizes she’s freezing cold, soaked in sweat like the professor. They press something into her hand, and stand up.

“I have one more loop, and then I have to decide. I don’t think that will help me. But I figured you would like to spend the time with her.” They whisper, their voice jagged and torn.

It’s the Von Hrelsveg blend.

Dorothea stumbles after her teacher, her legs barely working right, the world tilted and hazy. She reaches out for their hand and nearly falters, but with a pained look their arms strike out, catching her by the elbows to lift and steady her.

“If it will be the last day… Can we all be together? Everyone? To say goodbye?” Dorothea can hear how desperate she sounds and she hates it, but won’t let go.

Byleth makes hollow eye contact with her. “You won’t remember asking me this.”

Dorothea leans on them a harder, forcing them to let her into a hug that she holds as tight as she can. “Let me have a happier memory then.”

\------

In the morning, Dorothea tells the first bachelor to leave. She sends a letter to the second that she won’t be able to see them today. She pauses, unsure of why precisely she won’t be able to, but is sure she simply forgot to write it down.

And that afternoon, before everything changes, before any decisions are made, Byleth’s students have tea all together, one last time.

**Author's Note:**

> Can't believe i used that song title for a drabble ayy lmao. this was basically to stop myself from writing some sort of 100k slowburn where dorothea slowly unwinds time and probably kisses all her girlfriends. i have so many ships i wouldnt have been happy doing any of them individually so sigh! this is what u get now! someone tie me down to an actual good au to write im Craving Stimulation


End file.
